We have studied identically prepared Au(5 nm)/n-GaAs (35 dots) and Au(65 nm)/n-GaAs (38 dots) Schottky barrier diodes (SBDs) on the same n-type GaAs single crystal. A GaAs wafer has been prepared by the usual chemical etching, and evaporation of the metal has been carried out in a conventional vacuum system. The effective Schottky barrier heights (SBHs) and ideality factors obtained from the current-voltage (I -V ) characteristics have differed from diode to diode. The SBH for the Au(5 nm)/n-GaAs diodes have ranged from 0.839 to 0.943 eV and the ideality factor n from 1.011 to 1.150. The SBH for the Au(65 nm)/n-GaAs diodes have ranged from 0.828 to 0.848 eV and the ideality factor n from 1.026 to 1.069. Our aim is to find the laterally homogeneous SBH values of the SBDs depending on Schottky metal thickness. The lateral homogeneous SBH values of 0.940 eV for the Au(5 nm)/n-GaAs and 0.866 eV for the Au(65 nm)/n-GaAs diodes have been calculated from a linear relationship between barrier height (BH) and the ideality factor, which can be explained by lateral inhomogeneities of the SBH, respectively.
A study on parameters of the Sn/n-GaAs Schottky barrier diode (SBD) fabricated on an n-type GaAs substrate has been made. The Sn/n-GaAs SBD has shown a nearly ideal behaviour with ideality factor and barrier height (BH) values of 1.081 and 0.642 eV, respectively, from the experimental forward-bias current-voltage (I-V) characteristics. A BH value of 0.724 eV has been obtained from the experimental reverse-bias capacitance-voltage (C-V) characteristics. An accurate theoretical modelling of the effect of the presence of inhomogeneities on the electron transport across the metal-semiconductor interface has been applied. This model attempts to explain abnormal experimental results obtained on 'real' Schottky diodes. Our results clearly demonstrate that the electron transport at the metal-semiconductor interface is significantly affected by low-barrier regions (patches). When the experimental data are described by the thermionic emission theory of inhomogeneous Schottky contacts, it has been concluded that both the experimental forward and reverse I-V characteristics and the difference between the values of the experimental I-V and C-V SBHs should be considered. An experimental BH difference of = 0.082 V has been obtained for the Sn/n-GaAs SBD that is less than the critical value; therefore, it has been seen that the potential in front of the patch is not pinched off.
After annealing in a H 2 atmosphere at different temperatures, 100 -oriented n-GaAs substrates were metallized with Au and Ti layers of different thicknesses to form Au/n-GaAs and Ti/n-GaAs Schottky diodes. The Schottky barrier height (SBH) variation and its dependence on subsequent N 2 annealing for these Schottky diodes have been studied by different measurement techniques (I-V, C-V and BEEM) to obtain reliable values. These methods show that pre-metallization annealing leads to a less homogeneous metal semiconductor (MS) interface. In case of thick Au layers the effective barrier height is reduced as soon as the H 2 annealing temperature reaches 300 • C. However, GaAs samples covered with thin Au layers or Ti layers do not exhibit such a barrier height reduction. The lower value in the case of thick Au layers is attributed to H + groups, present at the interface due to the annealing in H 2 atmosphere, forming interfacial dipoles with Au, leading to an inhomogeneous barrier and a decrease of the effective barrier height. It seems that these dipoles disappear again in the case of thin Au layers or are not formed with Ti. Post-metallization N 2 annealing at higher temperatures lowers the barrier height for all samples. The resulting barrier inhomogeneities are explained and analysed using the bond polarization theory of Tung ( 2001
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